Get it over with – Our view: County board should address pay for elected officers

For 51 weeks a year, the typical county board of commissioners operates smoothly, addressing issues as they come up while doing the public’s business.
And come the end of the year, commissioners know they face a looming problem. It’s easier to shove the issue to the side rather than deal with it out in the open. But there is a way around this political swamp, a way to avoid facing an issue most county boards would rather eschew.
County Sheriff Scott Rehmann, Auditor-Treasurer Connie Kurtzweg, Recorder Lynn Ette Schrupp all asked the board to take a look at their salaries to determine the wage for 2020.
Compensation for elected officials is never enjoyable to deal with. How uncomfortable can it be?
Tuesday, Dec. 17, the McLeod County Board’s agenda included a closed session to discuss in private, the salaries the county would pay its elected officials. We wish we were making this up.
Sadly, we’re not.
Fortunately, County Attorney Michael Junge spotted the agenda item and nixed what would have been a violation of Minnesota’s open meeting law. We commend Junge for his action and the education he offered county staff.
In McLeod County, Sheriff Scott Rehmann has been in office for 13 years. He’ll make $93,072 in 2019. There are eight sheriffs in counties of like-sized populations in their first year as a county sheriff making more than Rehmann. Kurtzweg, who’ll make $85,000 in 2019, asked for a 6 percent increase. Schrupp will make $79,606 in 2019. Commissioners apparently looked at her salary in 2018. But without the desired amount of information, the board dropped the issue rather than seek the information it needed.
Some members of the public like to say people who are lucky enough to win election and serve in public office knew the salary the position paid when they sought and won the job. That’s a cop-out. How those same nattering naysayers would react if their boss took that position with their job?
People who do good work, whether they are in the public or private sector positions, deserve to be appropriately compensated. Adjustments to their compensation shouldn’t be shoved aside because it’s an uncomfortable discussion.
Discussing raises for elected officials is seldom easy. These are not always easy jobs. Professionals who work hard and do their jobs well deserve to be fairly compensated in accordance with the marketplace. Deal with it and move on. It just takes a little political courage, a willingness to take some political flak.
All the county board has to do is set the pay for the elected officials. They can include themselves or not, although doing so would spare commissioners the discomfort of discussing their own salaries publicly.
Once the pay is set for the elected officials, commissioners can then determine annual changes in compensation based on: A) the rate of inflation; or B) the average salary for the same position in a predetermined field of counties of similar size and demographics with similar job descriptions for each position.
With that set of conditions in place, the annual setting of salaries can be placed on the board’s consent agenda to be determined en masse with building permits, minor contracts and other.
Might a citizen or someone else request the item be pulled from the consent agenda? Sure. But if the board has an established policy, there should be little trouble defending a sound decision based on sound logic.
-jm